The World Around You

The Huntsville Times editorial page raises this important question in this afternoon’s editorial,

Mark Twain, wise in so many ways, once noted that there were three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. The efforts of opponents of Gov. Bob Riley’s tax-and-accountability package fit in there somewhere.

I know where I would put them!

The anti-Riley calculator site is loaded with hot-button phrases designed to appeal to voters’ fears and prejudices rather than their hopes and dreams. But it all boils down to trying to get Alabamians once again to say no to progress.

So do the calculations and see the extra cost - if, indeed, your taxes do go up. But realize the statistics tell only part of the story. You can’t calculate what optimism will do for Alabama, and you can’t put a price on turning your back on the future.

This last sentence is the crux of this whole debate. A no vote on September 9th does not mean it’s back to the drawing board. It dooms us to a future of more of the same failure we have experienced for decades. Does anyone really want that?

Daily Kos notes Larry Sabato’s early look at the 2004 electoral map as he sees it. On the one hand, it’s good news for Democrats that things really are going to be as competitive as they think. On the other hand, it’s a map that could have been put together any time since the last election. Also, giving candidates their home states is dangerous business. Remember what happened to Gore in Tennessee!

Pete Barth of the Sheboygan Press (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) has coined a new definition for “Pulling an Alabama”,

The NFL should go case-by-case and act when true injustice occurs. The next time an NFL team pulls an “Alabama” (which hired Mike Shula over superior candidate Sylvester Croom), a stiff fine and public scolding should be swift. But the NFL is making a mistake by applying this broad policy that bit the Lions.

Paul Bedard reports in today’s Washington Whispers,

As White House officials try to control the latest fallout over President Bush’s flawed suggestion in the State of the Union address that Iraq was buying nuclear bomb materials, there’s growing talk by insiders that National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice may take the blame and resign. For most insiders, it’s inconceivable that Rice, touted as a future secretary of state, California governor, and even vice president, would go, but the latest revelations that her shop and deputy Stephen Hadley mishandled CIA warnings have put the NSC in the bull’s eye of controversy.

While it’s unclear how serious the talk is inside the administration about the future of Rice or Hadley with the NSC, a few top aides are already suggesting replacements for Rice. They include former Bush administration National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft, NASA chief and former Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe, and Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq.

UPDATE: James notes this news and thinks Condi will stay.

NBC News is reporting that Bob Hope has died, at the age of 100. Here is a comprehensive career profile at the Internet Movie Database.